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Friday, 30 March 2012

Unlike his promises to close the terrorist detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, keep lobbyists out of the White House, and oppose an individual mandate for health insurance, at least we know that Mr. Obama was true to his word when he promised to bankrupt an entire industry that employs tens of thousands of Americans.

Dear Matt, better make that hundreds of thousands. The coal mining industry not only provides 150,000 - 175,000 jobs directly, but also another 400,000 jobs indirectly - at ancillary suppliers, manufacturers, engineering firms and transportation businesses. And then there are the myriad grocery stores, Dairy Queens, Target stores - and yes, utility companies - where the families of miners, tire store employees and truck drivers spend their paychecks.

FP: You say some pretty tough things about some important people and organizations...

Widlanski: From Professor Edward Said of Columbia to John Esposito of Georgetown, from Eason Jordan, Christiane Amanpour, Robert Wiener and Peter Arnett of CNN to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd of the Times, and from George Tenet to Michael Scheuer at CIA. The list is of course much longer. Many of them have minimized, ignored and even concealed the problem, and occasionally fronted for terrorists. This is intolerable. My book names names, but it also offers policy solutions.

Dayenu... It would have been enough for us had Widlanski just named names. I applaud his effort to turn the conversation toward these offenders and hold them accountable. The fact that Widlanski offers "policy solutions" is simply icing on the cake, but it does afford us the cover of responsible, good-citizen respectability should we send copies to Washington:)

My recommendation is that you buy two, one for yourself and one for your Congressman or Senator. If you're feeling especially generous and optimistic, you could send a third copy to the State Department, but I doubt it would do any good. I once sent a book to Condoleezza Rice and she never even acknowledged the gift. (Harrumph)

Or... someone (like our erudite friend Mannie Sherberg) could write a review and offer it to their local paper. Should anyone take up this challenge, I'd be happy to post it here at BtB as well.

Full Disclosure: I was on the call too, but have been waiting until I've read the book to say more. The problem is that I already have an enormous stack on my bedside table and every time I look at it, I get a severe attack of Attention Deficit Disorder and end up watching NCIS reruns instead. So please don't wait for me, Argentina.

Thursday, 29 March 2012

[All day I was toying with the idea of sending around one or more of the stories about Israel’s supposed deal with Azerbaijan to use their airfields as a staging area for an attack on Iran. But I kept asking myself who really benefits from the story – and never pressed “send.” Now I have an answer to my question, and as I suspected the beneficiary (and source) of the story was Israel’s “best friend,” Barack Obama. df]

JERUSALEM - Two reports today about Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of an Israeli military strike have analysts in Israel accusing the Obama administration leaking information to pressure Israel not to bomb Iran and for Iran to reach a compromise in upcoming nuclear talks.

Note to Self: Amend will to read that if I am ever in an accident, Gd forbid, and my heart is donated, it must NOT go to Daily Beast writer Kent Sepkowitz, Newsweek/DB assignment editor Allison Yarrow or Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh ... under any circumstances.

3:25 p.m. Updated | President Obama called on Congress to end $4 billion in tax subsidies for oil and natural gas companies on Thursday, casting the issue as a choice between plumbing scarce resources versus investing in clean energy research.

“That’s the choice facing Congress today,” Mr. Obama said, before the Senate voted on repealing the tax breaks. “They can either vote to spend billions of dollars on oil subsidies that keep us trapped in the past. Or they can vote to end these taxpayer subsidies so that we can invest in the future. It’s that simple.”

Better go out and shake your money tree because Karl Rove is going to talk about some incoming cost increases for all you consumer-taxpayers out there.

... now even ObamaCare advocates admit it increases insurance premiums and does not lower them as the president promised.

Consider MIT Prof. Jonathan Gruber, a former consultant to the Obama administration. You may recall that the White House rolled him out in November 2009 to undercut a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) analysis a month earlier that estimated premiums in the individual market would increase by 47% over the law's first decade. Mr. Gruber assured Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, "What we know for sure is that [the bill] will lower the cost of buying non-group health insurance."

But since ObamaCare passed, several states have hired Mr. Gruber to consult on the creation of the state insurance exchanges that are part of the new law. In this role, Mr. Gruber has now advised at least three states that health-coverage premiums in the individual market would increase 19% to 30%. The culprit is the law's "guaranteed issue" provision that requires insurers to issue policies upon demand, regardless of any pre-existing conditions. This was exactly the provision PWC's analysis warned about before the law was enacted.

If you want to learn about Karl Rove's "grand plan for permanently changing the country in a radical way," see the (2005) PBS program that suggested just that.

AT about 1:22 "... together we will change this country and we will change the world."

I suppose you've already heard about this "amazing exchange" yesterday at the State Department, but just in case:

Q: Yesterday there was a bit of a kerfuffle over an announcement that was made by the department about the travel of your boss. Is it the State Department's position that Jerusalem is not part of Israel?

MS. NULAND: Well, you know that our position on Jerusalem has not changed. The first media note was issued in error, without appropriate clearances. We reissued the note to make clear that undersecretary, acting undersecretary for -- our -- Kathy Stevens will be travelling to Algiers, Doha, Amman, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. With regard to our Jerusalem policy, it's a permanent-status issue. It's got to be resolved through the negotiations between the parties.

Q: Is it the view of the -- of the United States that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, notwithstanding the question about the embassy -- the location of the U.S. embassy?

MS. NULAND: We are not going to prejudge the outcome of those negotiations, including the final status of Jerusalem.

Q: Does that -- does that mean that you do not regard Jerusalem as the capital of Israel?

MS. NULAND: Jerusalem is a permanent-status issue. It's got to be resolved through negotiations.

Q: That seems to suggest that you do not regard Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Is that correct or not?

MS. NULAND: I have just spoken to this issue --

Q: (Inaudible.)

MS. NULAND: -- and I have nothing further to say on it.

Q: You've spoken to the issue --

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

Q: -- but (haven't answered ?) the question. And I think there's a lot of people out there who are interested in hearing a real answer and not saying -- and not trying to duck and say that this has got to be resolved by negotiations between the two sides.

MS. NULAND: That is our --

Q: What is the capital of Israel?

MS. NULAND: Our policy with regard to Jerusalem is that it has to be solved through negotiations. That's all I have to say on this issue.

Q: What is the capital of Israel according --

MS. NULAND: Our embassy, as you know, is located in Tel Aviv.

Q: So does that mean you regard Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel?

MS. NULAND: The issue on Jerusalem has to be settled through negotiations.

....

Q: I just want to go back to -- I want to clarify something, perhaps give you an "out" on your Jerusalem answer. Is it your -- is it your position that all of Jerusalem is a final-status issue, or do you think -- or is it just East Jerusalem?

MS. NULAND: Matt, I don't have anything further to what I've said 17 times on that subject. OK?

Q: All right. So hold on. So I just want to make sure. You're saying that all of Jerusalem, not just East Jerusalem, is a final-status issue.

MS. NULAND: Matt, I don't have anything further on Jerusalem to what I've already said.

Last year, I suggested there was no need for President Obama to make a federal case out of Menachem Zivotofsky’s request to have “Israel” designated on his passport as his place of birth, pursuant to a law giving Americans born in Jerusalem the right to that designation if they requested.

.... because the controversy continues, we may continue to be treated to colloquies like the one at the State Department yesterday.

[....]

The reporter might have referenced the State Department website, which identifies Israel’s capital as Jerusalem (and says Israel’s area is 20,330 square kilometers, “including Jerusalem”); or the CIA website, which says the same thing; or the Department of Defense website, which is replete with references to “Jerusalem, Israel” – including a picture of Secretary Gates and Prime Minister Netanyahu “during a working lunch meeting in Jerusalem, Israel.” But for the same reason the White House scrubbed its website of references to Vice President Biden in “Jerusalem, Israel” and scrubbed references even in Bush administration documents, the official policy had to be restated yesterday no matter how the question was asked.

This all could have been avoided if the White House had followed my advice last year; ended the charade about the city that has been Israel’s capital since 1950; and stopped fighting a nine-year old boy’s passport designation in the Supreme Court and beyond. Sometimes I think the White House doesn’t read my posts.

* In 2008, the average price for a gallon of regular gas hit an "all-time high" at $4.12 in July and then bottomed out at $1.61 in December.

If you'll allow me just one more flashback, this comes from an ABC Local report, Monday, July 7, 2008.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wrapped up her San Francisco holiday weekend Monday with a blast at President Bush. The topic -- the price of oil. Gasoline has more than doubled since the Bush administration took office she says.

San Francisco's Meals on Wheels turns out more than 1,300 meals a day to seniors. But now there has been a dramatic rise in expenses.

"Our costs have gone up 40 percent, but even more so, the indirect costs of driving food costs is really taking a big hit on us. Almost a nine percent increase in food costs in just one year," says Ashley McCumber of Meals on Wheels.

McCumber joined Speaker Pelosi Monday to dramatize the tough times businesses are having because of fuel costs. The speaker blames what she labels the Bush-Cheney big oil agenda, using graphics to point out gasoline prices have more than doubled in the Bush administration.

"This is a scam of the greatest magnitude," says Speaker Pelosi.

Rising gas prices affect groups like the Boys and Girls Club that is cutting programs to save costs, a small businessman who finds himself being priced out of competition or a caregiver who can't afford gas to get to clients. And for other Meals on Wheels programs around the bay, hikes in fuel costs have meant fewer deliveries. They can't find volunteers who can afford to fill their tanks.

[....]

"We can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country," says President Bush.

"You know full well if you could drill in the Arctic Refuge it would save two cents 20 years from now," says Speaker Pelosi.

Republicans should take a lesson, and seek out the current opinions at Meals on Wheels, Boys and Girls clubs, from small businessmen, caregivers and volunteers.

I know, whining is not as attractive to conservatives as it is to liberals, but think about it... Why should we bring a knife to a gunfight?

.... The local productions of grievance theater have gone national and we are all compelled to watch it play out. No matter what happens to George Zimmerman or what we learn about Trayvon Martin, the country has been turned into unwilling participants in a national drama that places a distorted idea of race at the center of our identity for the benefit of the same hucksters and politicians who have destroyed the city and are hard at work destroying the country.